Jesse Harvan comes home from school one day to find his parents have discovered the gay pornographic magazine hidden under his bed. Disgusted, they decide to send Jesse to Camp Grady, a summer camp which prides itself on converting people’s sexuality.

Once at the camp, Jesse meets the other inmates: Charlie, a disabled African-American gay teenager, Natalie, a transgender girl, her sister Lita, Japanese lesbian Sakura, and last of all, Minister Grady’s son Jacob, who works for the camp under duress. These teens must learn to bridge their differences and get along if they’re to beat their common enemy and keep their identities–and sanity–intact.

My new release, interracial M/M fantasy romance Nami is now available to purchase on All Romance and Amazon! Step into a world of religion, war, and devotion as one man struggles to save the man he loves from the chains of a cruel fate.

The Empire is sweeping the land, taking cities and towns by force. Nami, a young priest dedicated to the Goddess Ceres, is ready to sacrifice himself as Numidia falls, but his slave, lover, and protector Avan saves Nami from the temple flames against his will.

Alive and outraged, Nami travels to the city of Gran Terra to consult the Great Temple, but Avan’s love is changing Nami’s worldview. When he sees the Great Temple has become a hive of greed and indulgence, he challenges the idea of dying for a deity. However, the High Priest has another idea, and Nami will have to find every ounce of strength inside himself if he’s to escape the Temple alive with Avan by his side.

Continuing my experiment with Kindle Unlimited, I’ve enrolled True Nature in KDP Select and it’s now available to borrow for free for Kindle Unlimited/Kindle Owners Lending Library users. This was a no-brainer, since iTunes wouldn’t list it for content and Scribd seemed unwilling to offer it in their subscription lending service.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Should I enroll more of my self-published titles in Kindle Unlimited? Does being able to borrow fiction (especially short fiction) make you more likely to read something you’d be reluctant to purchase? Should I enroll all my short fiction, perhaps even my novels, or is having a choice in which vendor you use more important to you? All comments are welcomed and appreciated.

I’ve seen a lot of complaining on the Internet lately, in various forms of media. People aren’t happy with media depictions of… just about everything. Women aren’t being written correctly. Portrayals of gay/bi/trans people are trope-filled and/or phobic. POC aren’t represented enough. To a certain extent, I can agree. There is always room for more fiction about more people. The wider we can spread this net, the better, so that everyone can find a story that speaks to them on a personal level. However…

It’s a thorny subject that generates a lot of outrage and sore feelings. The heart of the matter is that people want to see themselves depicted in fiction. I’m pretty sure most of us in the LGBTQ community can tell you how wonderful it was the first time we read fiction that was about us specifically – that little leap of joy inside, that feeling that even if only for a moment – we were not alone in the world. But those warm fuzzy feelings that made me want to write fiction in the first place seem to have changed into something quite dark and quite frightening: a vision of the future in which television, game, and fiction writers’ every word is scoured and checked to make sure nobody is offended, hurt, or upset. Every big blockbuster movie and T.V. show seems to have its content analyzed by a small segment of people determined to find something to be outraged by.

I can’t get behind the outrage, because outrage and offense are to me the principle enemies of free speech. I don’t support the idea that people who speak thoughtlessly or provocatively should be hounded out of jobs and homes. I don’t think that people should have to check every word that comes out of their mouths and every idea that they have for a story because someone might find it upsetting. I’m a writer. Sometimes my soul is a very upsetting place. Parts of my life have been difficult to say the least. Sometimes those experiences bleed into my writing. That’s what honesty in writing is all about. Of course there have been books I didn’t finish due to the content being too extreme for my tastes, but that doesn’t mean those books shouldn’t exist. Everyone has a comfort level, but the only person who should be policing it is themselves.

Outrage is energy – energy that needs to be channeled in a more positive way. The Internet breeds outrage because it goes viral in a heartbeat and earns a lot of ad revenue via clicks. That’s right: your outrage earns other people money. I still don’t think it’s too late to put down the pitchforks and pick up pens instead. Recently, I backed a number of Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns dedicated to GLBTQ indie comics, because I believe we have the power to make positive change. Not through outrage – but through creativity. Each one of us has the power to log out of toxic comment threads and to instead write fiction or draw comics that make other people feel loved and accepted. I’ve recently wondered if I even still have a place doing what I do in a world where everyone seems so angry and offended, but the truth is this: this world needs stories about love perhaps now more than ever. What I write may not always be perfect. Some people may be offended by things I write. That doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying. I still believe that everyone deserves their love story and I won’t rest until we can have a world in which diversity and free speech are not seen as opposing forces but as companions that go hand in hand.

Now for the giveaway: to win a copy of Written In Stone, all you need to do is leave your e-mail and a brief comment on this post with any thoughts you might have. The contest closes 9pm EST May 24th and the winner will be informed by e-mail shortly after that.

Many thanks to everyone for letting me participate in the hop so late. Please visit the other participants for some wonderful posts and prizes.

Firstly, Reunited went on general release this week, meaning you can now buy it at all your favorite ebook retailers! Reviews are starting to hit as well, and they had these lovely things to say:

“Ever want to read a light, short, and totally awesome feel-good read? This is it. Reunited is just marvelous.” – Multitasking Mommas

“A truly heartbreaking yet warm story about two men who thought they lost one another only to see each other again in the afterlife. Very emotional with drama and past regrets as well as some tearful scenes. Well written. Great read.” – MM Good Book Reviews

Fantasy M/M Romance novella The Dragon’s Curse has completed all edits and has a final blurb. With a tentative release date of June 3rd, The Dragon’s Curse will soon be up for pre-order at Less Than Three Press. In the meantime, you can add it to your Goodreads shelves and feast your eyes on the amazing cover. I’m very, very excited for this release and I’ll be posting more information as it becomes available. To whet your appetite, enjoy this blurb:

War is brewing between the Greenlands and the Summer Kingdom, despite the efforts of Lord Aidan and Prince Varion, who have been meeting in secret in an attempt to maintain peace. When war proves inevitable, Aidan offers Varion asylum, loathe to see the man he’s come to care about become his enemy.

But Varion refuses, sacrificing safety and his own desires to stay in the Summer Kingdom in order to protect his little brother from their ruthless father. The two men instead declare a blood oath to always protect each other, an oath that will see them through war, transformation, and a deadly curse…

In other news, first edits have been completed for M/M romance Nami (Wilde City Press) and YA LGBT novella The Camp (Prizm Books). Look for those to hit shelves later this year.

I’ve taken a prompt for the Goodreads M/M Romance Group‘s annual Don’t Write In The Closet event, Love Is An Open Road, and work is underway on the story. I can’t tell you much at this point except the genre: it’s a fantasy prompt. If you want to learn more, join the group where the story will be released for free sometime this summer.

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and I’ve decided I want to start posting reviews again.

With a single, big, but: I won’t be accepting review requests. In fact, reviewing things in a timely manner won’t be the point at all. All I want to do is share the love of LGBTQ books that I have chosen and liked, and share my opinions of books that are probably way back in authors’ catalogues. I want to give love to the unloved books out there, often buried beneath a pile of new releases authors are pushing because release date sales are often the only good sales. Some of the books I’ll review will be non-fiction. Never will I be obligated to write a review: I’m doing this simply for the love of it. Neither will authors/publishers provide files: most of my reviews will be based on what I’ve read on Scribd or bought out of pocket. Some will be from publishers I’ve worked with, but not because they asked or even because they want me to write about their books. My reviews won’t conform to any style, ranging from in-depth analysis to single paragraph explanations.

I stopped writing reviews for a very simple reason: my reading habits are unusual. I might read 20 books in a month, then read nothing for weeks. I frequently read outside my genre, which is great for me, but would probably bore romance readers to tears. I also don’t connect with a lot of really popular titles, which can be awkward when you’ve accepted a book for review and have to grind through it, understanding that it’s a great book that deserves a good review, it’s just not for you. But I love to read, and I love to write about the experience. So expect reviews to resume with immediate effect.

If you’re looking for a feel-good writerly tale of unexpected success, financial solvency or bestseller lists, you’ve come to the wrong place. On the other hand, this is not a rant, either, but simply a few facts on what I’m doing and where I feel I might have gone off-track recently.

The Culture Wars series has never been huge. It seems that readers aren’t so big on homophobia stories, and coupled with science fiction elements, the second book in the series, Written In The Snow, didn’t sell bucketloads. That’s fine. I wrote those books for me, because I wanted to write them. I was starting out, learned a lot of lessons, and improved my craft.

Then came another book, Written In Stone. It was more of a political spinoff of the Culture Wars series, centering on people more than sci-fi/military romance. I spun it off into its own series because it was a prequel to the events of the Culture Wars, and I thought it would make for one hell of a confusing third entry in a series.

Looking back, it really was a vanity project, with not a whole lot of sales potential. That didn’t stop me from spending the best part of a year on it. I rewrote parts of it, cut entire sections, wrote out characters and enlisted a very helpful and generous beta who assisted me greatly. I really did feel satisfied with the end product, right down to the cover. But it took a hell of a lot of time, I’m talking a good 1000 hours easily, getting it to that place. Probably closer to 2000. I sank months on end into hammering out every little detail.

The problem of course is that it was still a self-published side story to an already limited-interest series. And it flopped. I sold perhaps a dozen copies at launch, totaling around $50 in royalties. Then… nothing. I haven’t sold a single copy in two months. Nothing else from my backlist has been moving, either.

The question at this point, is, do I want to continue to indulge myself, and write a few novels I’m happy with that may never find an audience? Or do I still cling to the lofty ideas of someday making a living as a writer?

It’s a very tough question. I know what my heart says. My heart says that last April I wrote an F/F/M bisexual novel when very few publishers see any sales potential in menage with F/F content. And I love it so much I sent it to a publisher anyway. I’m not sure if I want them to accept or refuse it, because I fear losing my publishers money, I really do. I see so many small presses going under and I don’t know if I’m just wrong for this corner of the web, at least if I want to be what one would consider a “successful” writer.

I’ll be honest, I looked at the M/M Goodreads Book Group’s Member Choice Awards winners this year and I saw a lot of books that aren’t my cup of tea at all. That doesn’t mean they don’t deserve awards (and congratulations to all the winners!), but just that when I see what my audience wants and what I want, I see two different paths… I’m not into contemporary romance, and I feel like that shows when I try to write it, yet I still feel that inexorable pull from a well-told, plotty fantasy or sci-fi romance. There are stories I want to tell, but I’m not sure people are waiting to read them. I don’t want or need to be popular, but I worry that I’m not connecting with anyone at all, no matter how hard I try, and what use is writing if nobody reads it? Even the extremely rough and unedited F/F fiction I put out on the web years ago seemed to attract an audience.

On a more positive note, I do have some great releases coming out this year, that represent my very best work. Reunited, from Totally Bound Publishing. Nami, from Wilde City Press. The Dragon’s Curse and The Forbidden Zone from Less Than Three Press. I’ve received some great feedback from editors. I think if there was ever a year that will spell my future, it’s this one. I have a lot riding on a few works that I really poured everything into.

The other choice is writing for money, and… I’m not even sure that’s an option. The secret with me is that I’m very inspiration/Muse based. If the soul isn’t there, the magic doesn’t happen. I do have a very rough M/F novel still sitting on my hard drive from 2010 which could be fixed up and expanded into a series, but I’m reluctant to leave my genre. With a full-time job, leaving LGBTQ writing really would mean leaving, and I don’t want to go anywhere else. I like it here. I love that there are books about all colors of the rainbow. I’m so happy to see F/F fiction finally getting some appreciation.

And maybe that’s the secret – not to court mainstream appeal at all but to simply write, and perhaps find a niche where I can be happy and make others so. That’s why I’m going to start an F/F novel right now, because I’m feeling it when I haven’t felt the desire to write since November. And damn the numbers, screw the odds.

I’m not selling out and I’m not leaving. I’m here to stay with all the weird and wonderful ideas floating around my brain.

Peter thought that Oliver was gone forever, but fate offers him once last chance to reunite with the man he loved and lost…

Reunited is a short story, part of Totally Bound Publishing’s Lust Bites line. A sexy yet sweet story set in 1990s England and dealing with themes of love, loss, and H.I.V., it will tug on your heartstrings while leaving you with a contented, warm feeling. It will be available for early download on their website starting February 6th, and out for general release on March 6th.

Just a quick note to let you know that Written In Stone, the first in my Culture Wars spinoff series New World Rising, is out now!

The year is 2228. Bill Ashwood is set to become the most powerful man in Florida since the separation of America into individually governed states. Discovered by the League and primed to win the gubernatorial election, Bill is expected to give the voters what they want – a fiery speech condemning gays in America. Despite his reservations, Bill goes ahead and gives the speech, but the seeds of doubt are planted in his mind. Along with the secret desires he harbors in his dreams, Bill’s poised for a change of heart that will ensure nothing in his life will ever be the same again.

Daniel Wilson – a journalist for the Miami Reporter – receives a late night phone call asking him to watch the video of Ashwood’s speech. Incensed by what he sees as a personal attack on him and millions of others, he hatches a plan to seduce Ashwood and expose him in a special report.

Seduction is never easy, and soon Daniel finds himself falling for Ashwood, who claims to want out of the hateful riots planned by his campaign manager. If Ashwood wants to bring down the League’s campaign in Florida, he’ll have to take off his mask and tell the world the truth about his affair – but the League will go to any lengths to keep their dirty laundry under wraps.

“The sensual, loving moments between Lane and Elsa are wonderful and light things up in the face of so much devastation, loss, and their fight for survival. However, remember the title of the book is The Miracle. Another classic phrase filled my mind and heart…it is always darkest before the dawn. Transcendent!”

Many thanks to Rainbow Book Reviews and jj for taking the time to review my book.